Divine Intervention

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Divine Intervention
(Haw River near Bynum, North Carolina USA)

Primordial Light

An infinite universe cradles my essence

Among whispers of the sacred and divine.
Temporal boundaries become meaningless.
I’m born-again at the hand of primordial Light.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Primordial Essence
(August 21, 2017 solar eclipse over Pittsboro, North Carolina USA)

Farewell To Summer

Late daylight grows dim over sleepy river wild

Where pinking skies aloft encourage quietude,

While whispers among carefree rush of waters

Scribe elegant poetry upon the liquid amber.

They speak of vernal snowmelt rhapsodies,

Touch on miserable dog days of summer past,

Hint at gelid flows and ice mansions of winter

And propose gaiety at coming autumn dance.

They bring up rock-strewn cataracts upstream,

Mention echoes of children at cool waterholes,

Make allusion to kinship of man and waterfowl

Fishing in boulder gardens along reedy banks.

My heart rejoices in said farewell to summer.

My soul finds bliss in ethereal touch of eternity.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Autumn Whispers
(Haw River near Bynum, North Carolina USA)

Life Force

While many people in our country experience a full solar eclipse, the Moon's shadow manages to cover about 93% of the sun over Pittsboro, North Carolina. Families, friends, even strangers gather to share this rare primordial occurrence. As twilight settles over our neighborhood, crescent-shaped light filters through tree foliage and casts unusual shadows onto surfaces. The leaves serve as an array of pinhole cameras in projecting the sun's crescent sliver onto a concrete sidewalk at our home. These amazing images away from the main event add an air of spiritual allegory. In flights of imagination we bridge millennia and find kindred humans in awe of similar celestial wonder.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Life Force
(Solar eclipse drama over Pittsboro, North Carolina USA)

Heliotrope

Oriental Escapade

Divine Light

Last light of day still holds sway,

As full Moon hovers aloft Staked Plain

And prairie straw thirsts for moonlight hues.

My heart takes wing, oh, vision of eternity.

My soul enraptured whispers hallelujah—

Purified by eventide’s divine poetry of light

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Divine Light
(Moonrise over Llano Estacado north of Clovis, New Mexico USA)

Rainbow Covenant

The Dog Days of Summer are upon us. Sultry heat indexes in the triple digits and scarce rainfall are the rule. Today late-afternoon thunderstorms pour Heaven's tears across the parched land and bring relief. A fleeting rainbow seals the deal.

The envious tempest grumbles
Honeyed rumors of discontent
With the remindful, fleeting arch
Over its subsiding murky chaos;
Yet, takes heart in such alliance
Of heavenly tears and sunlight,
For it renews a blessed covenant,
That of the temporal with divine.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Heavenly Tears
(Pale Evening Primrose)

Terraglyph Lore - Osa Hini

Terraglyphs are tiny ridges of wet soil pushed to the surface by ground beetle larvae activity after rains on the Llano Estacado tablelands. They resemble whimsical figures and indecipherable calligraphy. Let’s indulge in creating a myth. Let’s conjure a story first spoken in hushed and reverend awe among native American cultures of the Southern Great Plains.

Imagine a Comanche boy on the precipice of manhood. This fourth day of his first vision quest he remains quietly humble before the Great Spirit. It’s an unusually cold mid-summer day on the plain. He shivers in the aftermath of a passing thunderstorm. In the foggy clarity induced by a four-day fast, he observes the damp earth in his camp move almost imperceptibly. He mutters, “osa hini…osa hini…what is that?” A guardian spirit soon reveals itself and asks raven to teach the boy several songs, but also draws symbols of hope upon the terra cotta skin of Earth Mother. “What will I call you when I tell the medicine man about you,” the boy asks? The spirit chuckles and says, “you came by my power when you implored me with osa hini. That will be my name.” The boy thanks the spirit and returns to his band and family with medicine power—what his people call puha. That evening at a camp fire gathering he makes time to sing the spirit’s admonitions to the People.

“Hear me, these are the words brought to me on wings of raven and now first spoken to you the ancient People of the plains. You have seen the signs on the face of Earth Mother after sky lakes soothe her burnt countenance with rain. From this day forward we will respect and call them osa hini; for they are messages written by tami and nami—the younger brothers and sisters of ground beetles—summoned by the Great Spirit. They are joyful promises of better days and hunts ahead. Let all who encounter the signs refrain from disturbing the messages of things to come—lest all manner of calamity and torment befalls the People.”

Eventually terraglyph lore makes its way into the roughhewn lives of white settlers and weatherbeaten cowboys huddled around cattle drive camp fires on the vast grasslands. Stories persist in oral traditions of people who cast shadows onto the plains.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Osa Hini - What Is That?

Message Of Hope
(Ground beetle larvae calligraphy on Llano Estacado of New Mexico)

Bearing Gifts - Promises Of Better Days

Signs - Admonitions To The People

Love's Crossroads

All crossroads in love call for resolve,

Yet faint-hearted souls hem and haw

And day by day avoid that first step,

Conceding beds of roses to the bold.

Take heart travelers on the spiral of life,

Yes, hard-won passages set hearts afire.

Each falter and stumble hones life skills

For pursuit of daunting exploits of desire.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Life's Crossroads
(On the Llano Estacado east of Clovis, New Mexico)

Step Into The Light

Life is a finite journey into everlasting light--

An array of moments on the tapestry of time.

Let the good write memories upon your heart--

Your unique footfalls across muddy fields of life.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Step Into The Light

Heart Song

When chasing rainbows in your life,

Persevere down road less traveled

And you’ll discover that pot of gold

Has all along been your own heart.

That being so, when odyssey ends,

Put right all troubles born of regret

And resolve to live your passions

With all your heart until last breath.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Life After The Flood
(Sawtooth Daisies and alluvium after thunderstorm runoff near Clovis, New Mexico USA)

Prairie Melodies

Discover music in windswept prairie straw,

Hear echoes of solitude in hawk's call on high,

Find repose in raindrops battering red mesa

And rhapsodies of wind in tenacious piñon stand.

Lend ear to crescendo of flowers at playa shore,

Then consider prairie melodies with mindfulness.

Let said age-old harmonies reach into your heart

And connect your spirit to songs of the universe.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Age-old Melodies
(Cooper on the Llano near Clovis, New Mexico USA)

Yippie-Kay-Yay!

For tried-and-true frolic with fleet pronghorn

Get into waist-deep prairie on a cloudy day,

Respect serpent in grass also cactus thorn,

Then, loose heart and soul, yippie kay-yay!

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Spirituality

Spirituality gives mankind the wisdom to control the power of science.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Adobe Prayers
(Santuario San José De La Gracia in Las Trampas, New Mexico USA)

Ravages Of Drought

With Route 66 and Tucumcari NM in the rear view mirror, I head south into the broad Quay Valley towards the meandering northern escarpment of the Llano Estacado tablelands. I pause at what appear to be forsaken structures and windmill with stock tank. Northerly winds raise billows of dust. Diffused light from the milky skies softens ravages of time and drought on the land and motley reminders of human inroads into these badlands. I lend ear and heart to the whispers of wind in the withered canopies of tree skeletons. Songs of Native Americans in pursuit of bison herds, sighs of conquistadores in search of water holes and prayers of white setters striving to eke out an existence drift on the dust-laden winds sweeping the rugged Canadian River Plain.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Ravages Of Drought
(Off Highway 209 near Quay, New Mexico USA)

Quest For Serenity

While sunset spills awesome wonder

‘Cross calm expanse of bounding main,

Once emerald waves upon briny deep

Come to be joyful, amber ripples of Light

In search of portals within human hearts

And harried souls on quests for serenity. 

© Ilija Lukić 2017 

Divine Grace

Aye, mankind holds dear vernal essence,

While Mother Earth abounds with renewal,

When river wild breaks faith with ice floes

And in a rush of nostalgia proclaims spring.

Winter’s gone, oh happy day, winter’s gone,

Creation rejoices in God's bountiful embrace,

Swift river lends hand in shouts of adoration

With hallelujah chorus, awash in divine grace.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Hallelujah Chorus
(Lower Haw River Natural Area near Old Bynum village in North Carolina USA)

Vernal Essence
(Lower Haw River Natural Area hiking trail follows the river bank near Old Bynum village in North Carolina USA)

The Cowboy Life

I often reminisce about trail rides and chasing cattle with my cowboy friends Tony and Randy. The New Mexico shortgrass prairie, shin oak and sage-covered sand hills southeast of Clovis are favored range lands and stomping grounds. In mind’s eye, as countless times before, I venture into the boundless “Staked Plain” of New Mexico. Every minute is a lifetime of adventure. Their knowledge of cattle and horsemanship, cowboy humor, wit and above all patience give this greenhorn a glimpse into a way of life forgotten by many and experienced by few. (I dedicate this poem to my friends.)

Rain scarcely falls but wind does blow.

Dust time and again shrouds azure skies.

Cowboys roam the wilds of New Mexico,

Where cattle bawl and the hawk still flies.

Roll out of bed, stumble, it’s o’dark thirty;

Find gloves, don’t forget hat hung on rack;

Grab spurs, slide into boots worn and dirty,

Then make tracks in pickup, dogs in the back.

Saddle up Trouble at first blush of dawn.

The stallion joins Melon Head a red mule

And two weathered cowpokes ‘bout to have fun

With a wide-eyed greenhorn, handled old school.

Smell the sage, roust antelope and deer;

Ride fence down draw and over sand hill;

Round up heifers and chase ornery steer

And get ‘em to water ‘neath lone windmill.

Border Collies work, keep dogeys in line;

Chutes, gates, needles, branding iron smoke;

Count, tag, check heifers and due dates divine,

While bulls hightail it as steers after knife stroke.

Setting sun paints the western horizon red;

Band of coyotes sings ballads to the moon;

Greenhorn can’t wait to crawl into camp bed,

But starlight surrenders to dawn too soon.

Snow seldom falls, but when Blue Northers blow

They unleash snow squalls from angry skies,

Which on the High Plains of New Mexico

Feeds cowboy-life lore and tall tales likewise.

© Ilija Lukić 2022 (original version written in March 2017)

The Cowboy Life
(Sand Hills Lookout south of Clovis, New Mexico USA)

Between Eternities

Lend ear and heart travelers between eternities.

Liberate your spirit from the bondage of routine,
Make time for vast prairies under azure canopies,

Let plainsong sway your heart to brim with poetry

And whispers on the wind inspire introspection.

Take heart in quests for awe-inspiring wonders.

Muse ‘bout what may be on far sides of horizons,

Bring to bear free will in pilgrimage with Providence

And look back on sunset blazes as welcome interludes.

Surely, they are God’s glorious symphonies of Light.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Echoes Of Drought
(Bison range at Ned Hook Park near Clovis, New Mexico USA)

Last Dance

Close of day clings to clouds in eastern skies.

The silent rapture begs restraint of fated night,

Till last dance of light sets cloud billows afire

And eventide embraces the gentle veil of dark.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Last Dance
(Cobble Ridge in Pittsboro NC)

Ebenezer Church

This year early spring is a ride on a temperature roller coaster. Today blue skies and a 75-degree day call for an afternoon of exploring our neck of North Carolina. Along Beaver Creek Road just east of Jordan Lake mid-way between our home in Pittsboro and Apex NC I pause at Ebenezer Church. The church dates to the American Civil War era. I take a moment to reflect on its history.

Bathed in warm spring sunlight its tranquil grounds and adjacent cemetery belie upheaval the congregation endured, as they relocated this house of God and graves to the present site some forty years ago. The move accommodated the flooding of nearby New Hope Valley to create Jordan Lake.

I spend several more hours exploring the eastern shore of Jordan Lake and basking in sunlit clearings of pine woodlands painted by sprays of redbud and delicate early spring greenery. It's hard to imagine throngs of Old Man Winter's minions wreaking havoc once more. Yet Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow five weeks ago. Snow and temperatures in the 20s are on the way.

© Ilija Lukić 2017

Ebenezer United Methodist Church
(Beaver Creek Road near Apex NC at Poplar Point of Jordan Lake Park)

Portal Of Hope

Rock Of Help

Divine Disclosure